Chairman Bob's Blog

Well it's that time of year again so please have a Happy Christmas and  to you all I sincerely hope a much better New Year.  Who would have thought that this time last year you would all be recording stars and a social media sensation? I certainly didn’t but then you never can tell, that sounds like a song, [it was a play by George Bernard Shaw - Ed] anyway here we are on the run up to Christmas and we’ve seen some changes along the way.  As I’ve said several times before when I mooted the idea of recording ourselves singing a few carols I was amazed, and perhaps I really shouldn’t have been, on how keen and willing you were to get involved, bearing in mind at the time we were still not sure what was happening worldwide or even across the UK, so thank you all for your encouragement to do this. 

In September Merel really started to get the choir into song and we ramped up the carol singing earlier than normal so we could be ready to record individually and get the tapes mixed, but before that we managed to squeeze in the sound of Bus Stop which we mixed and forwarded to our colleagues in Europe and on that note I would like to do something similar in January, just because we can't be with them in person doesn’t mean we can be with them in song.  By the end of November all the tracks had been recorded and sent off to the editors for mixing, wow: that’s a process, never realised how much goes into mixing the tracks and getting the balance right with  lifting voices, lowering voices adding reverb and balancing this with the organ part as well etc etc.
 
We were extremely lucky to get permission to rehearse together albeit in very reduced numbers but rehearse we did and it was a lovely afternoon, and got us ready for the big night on Wednesday 9 December and you did the choir proud, singing beautifully together in St Martin's. For those of you who weren’t selected to sing I thank you for your support and encouragement to the 8 singers who were chosen.  It was a strange experience singing with cameras and mics  in front of and around us, plus what you probably didn’t hear on the live stream the constant chatter of instructions between the live stream team keeping the show running smoothly, and on that note weren’t the singers professional and kept going when the audio and organ tracks dropped out leaving us singing a capella for the last two verses of O come all ye faithful? 
 
So, look I've bored you enough now so here’s to 2021 when I hope and pray we can all meet together and sing and sing and sing for the sheer pleasure of being with friends making sweet and pleasant music; take care, stay safe and keep singing at home.
 
Have a HAPPY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

​Bob